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Global Peace Economic & Business Forum

Track Details

Violent conflict and instability disrupt markets and societies. In 2014, global economic losses due to violent conflict amounted to over US$9.8 trillion. . . . Businesses can be a powerful convener for bringing people together across national and cultural lines. They can create relationships based on a shared sense of identity and purpose, overcoming differences that, in the wider society, are more difficult to surmount. —UN Global Compact

BUSINESS LEADERS, GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS, NGO leaders, and entrepreneurs met at the Global Peace Convention 2017 to examine the critical, yet often unrecognized role of private sector business and economic development in poverty reduction, sustainable development, and regional stability. The UN’s embrace of the private sector Global Compact to accomplish its 2030 Agenda for sustainable development provided a perfect backdrop for the Business and Economic Forums at the Convention.

“If centuries ago, trade was a reason to provoke war, today, because international relations are such, it is conversely a tool for peace.”

—Dato Latt Shariman Abdullah, Founding President, e-Sports Malaysia

OUTCOMES:

A Global Peace Business Council was proposed to:

Help the business community understand their own critical contribution to peace, stability and inclusive prosperity.

Help the public sector and civil society understand this contribution and engage business leaders in peacebuilding initiatives.

Create a platform for collaboration within the business community as well as foster cross- sector collaboration beyond it.

Panelists and delegates from diverse backgrounds presented a new model for peace and development.

Regional economic collaboration was promoted, highlighted by this year’s fiftieth anniversary of the ASEAN economic community.